23] No estimates are available on the number of children who participated in the Iran-Iraq war, but Hojjatoleslam Hashemi Rafsanjani, later president, stated in 1982 that Iran's armed forces had been supplemented by 400,000 volunteers. An exiled source claims that since military service was compulsory from the age of 18 , most of these "volunteers" were likely to be younger.[18] Gulf war statistics about prisoners, casualties and their ages are unreliable, but according to the International Committee of the Red Cross at least 10 per cent of Iranian prisoners were under 18 .[19] Iranian officers captured by the Iraqis claimed that nine out of ten Iranian child soldiers were killed.
According to one journalist, most recruits had between one and three months of military training before being sent to the front, but some had no training at all.[20] Boys as young as nine were reportedly used in human wave attacks and to serve as mine sweepers in the war with Iraq.[21] Many child soldiers were captured by the Iraqis and transferred to a special Prisoner of War camp for children.[22] Some 300 , most believed to be 15 or younger were held by Iraq in a special, separated compound at Al-Ramadi, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, where they were are exploited by the Iraqi authorities for propaganda purposes.[23]
http://www.id.gov.jo/human/activities2000/middleeast_report.html#IRAN